MYCK vs VBCA

MYCKCState Street My2031 Corporate Bond ETF

VBCAAVanguard Target Maturity 2027 Corporate Bond ETF

In short

MYCK Most 2031 ladder rungs just clone an index. MYCK is State Street's actively managed version: people pick the corporate bonds, and the fund is built to hand back remaining principal and wind up on or about December 15, 2031.

VBCA Vanguard showed up late to the bond-ladder aisle and priced it accordingly: one rung of investment-grade corporate bonds, all maturing in 2027, wrapped in an ETF at 0.08%.

Stated mandate

MYCK The fund seeks current income and capital preservation through an actively managed portfolio focused primarily on corporate bonds maturing in 2031.

VBCA The fund seeks to track a market-weighted index of U.S.-dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate bonds that mature in 2027.

Why people hold it

• MYCK Active where the category is mostly passive: sector and issuer tilts come from State Street's own research rather than index replication.ssga.com
• Behaves like a bond you hold to the end: designed to distribute any remaining principal and liquidate on or about December 15, 2031.ssga.com
• Pays monthly, and it is one rung in State Street's MyIncome suite, so ladders can be built year by year with matching plumbing.ssga.com
• The label matches the contents: roughly 150 corporate bonds, all pointed at 2031, seeking income with capital preservation.

• VBCA At 0.08%, it undercuts the target-maturity norm, where iShares iBonds and Invesco BulletShares rungs run 0.10%.
• Its bonds are scheduled to mature between January 1 and December 15, 2027, and the index has a planned liquidation around that date, so duration winds down instead of resetting forever.sec.gov
• Market-weighted and investment-grade only: a single maturity year spread across the US corporate market rather than a handful of hand-picked bonds.
• Stands among the stronger implementations in a crowded target-maturity group, on cost and portfolio discipline.

Worth knowing

• MYCK Active costs more: 0.15% a year against a 0.10% cohort median and the 0.10% charged by index rungs like IBDU and BSCU.
• A small, lightly traded fund next to the giant iBonds and BulletShares rungs, so bid-ask spreads can be wider than the headline fee suggests.
• Active also means results can diverge from the ICE 2031 Maturity US Corporate Index it is measured against, either direction, and it only launched in 2024.ssga.com

• VBCA Launched in 2026 and still small, it trades thinly; spreads can be wider than on established bond ETFs.
• Corporate credit, not Treasuries: downgrades and defaults come with the territory. Treasury-only rungs such as IBTJ sidestep that risk.
• Short operating history, so there is limited data so far on how closely it tracks its index.

Full MYCK profile⁠

Full VBCA profile⁠